Search the letters

The Vaughan Williams Foundation has made over 5000 items freely available: chiefly letters from Ralph Vaughan Williams, but including some responses which shed light on the subject matter, and also a number of letters from Adeline and Ursula Vaughan Williams. These provide further information and often include messages or observations from Ralph, and there are also letters from Adeline and Ursula written on behalf of the couple. The text of letters written by RVW and UVW remain the copyright of the Foundation.

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The letters are in tabular form and can be sorted by column, or filtered by any keyword including name, musical title, year or subject (singly or in combination). Partial matches will also be found, e.g. searching “sky” will also find “Stravinsky”. To search for a phrase use inverted commas, e.g. “New York”.

To search by letter number, include the prefix VWL, e.g. VWL123.

Filter letters

Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL1521 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult 19410216 February 16th [1941]
VWL4785 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 19401203 Dec 3 [1940?]
VWL1472 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Mary Glasgow 19401120 Nov 20 [1940]
VWL4986 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19401114 Nov 14 [1940]
VWL1469 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19401103 Sunday [3rd November 1940]
VWL1468 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush 19401031 October 31 [1940]
VWL4984 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leslie Arthur Boosey 19401031 October 31 [1940]
VWL1463 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19401026 Oct 26 [1940]
VWL1458 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult (BBC) 19401004 October 4 [1940]
VWL4983 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19401004 Oct 4 [1940]
VWL4476 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Frank Howes 19400927 Sept 27 [about 1940?]
VWL4765 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Hubert Foss (Oxford University Press) 19400916 September 16 [ca 1940]
VWL1433 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Granville Bantock 19400828 August 28 [1940]
VWL4224 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19400828 August 28 [1940]
VWL4223 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Ernest Newman 19400821 August 21 [1940]
VWL1430 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Granville Bantock 19400821 August 21 [1940]
VWL4981 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Arthur Boosey 19400802 August 2 [1940]
VWL4040 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Lewis Crow 19400604 June 4 [1940]
VWL1416 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Rachel Fell 19400418 April 18 [1940]
VWL4670 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Cordelia Curle 19400327 Wednesday [March 27 1940]
VWL1410 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400324 March 24 [1940]
VWL4386 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Evangeline Farrer 19400303 March 3 [1940]
VWL5258 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Abraham 19400303 March 3 [1940]
VWL1398 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Major Percy S.G. O’Donnell 19400303 March 3rd [1940]
VWL4180 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Christopher le Fleming 19400225 Feb 25 [ca 1940]
VWL1356 Letter from Adeline Vaughan Williams to Joy Finzi 19400101 New Years Day [1940]
VWL4781 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Louis Boyd Neel 1940---- [late 1940]
VWL4572 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Edward Newill 194-1116 November 16 [1940s]
VWL5185 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sinclair Logan 194-0823 August 23 [1940s]
VWL3941 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Frederick McCleary 194----- Jan 26 [1940?]

You have never lost your invention but it has not developed enough.  Your best – your most original and beautiful style or ‘atmosphere’ is an indescribable sort of feeling as if one was listening to very lovely lyrical poetry.

GUSTAV HOLST letter to RVW 1903

He was one of the most 'complete' men I have ever known. He loved life, he loved work and his interest in all music was unquenchable and insatiable.

SIR JOHN BARBIROLLI, conductor

I was thunderstruck by the symphony last night - and hadn't expected to be. Jagged, pulsating and angry, from that very first clanging dissonance - how can it have come from the same source as the Tallis Fantasia?

AUDIENCE MEMBER, Newbury Festival